Steam Drivers Last Fling. A personal look at men enjoying a last chance on Mainline Steam

here we get to see the working friendships of steam footplate crews, current and retired, enjoying their friendship, their history, and comradeship. a shared experience of a working passion reliving what was once an everyday thing, and now just a memory Sad, but happy times so join me, and enjoy the shenanigans on a footplate ride between Stewarts lane and southall I had the pleasure of knowing Boggy for 20 odd years, his enthusiasm for steam and the life he had on the railways, his shooting, and other things besides. I met him through Tonbridge Model engineering Society, around 1990 when he purchased one of a pair of 5 inch schools class locomotives. one had been built by the renowned model engineer Jack Mercer, and the other one was built by a fellow club member in Parallel. however, this loco was not built to the same standards as Jacks, and was a known poor unreliable runner. Having passed through several owners, who never achieved any success with this loco, Dave took it on. he had no knowledge of what he was taking on but it didn't put him off. Behind closed doors it was commented that he would never do it. after all, no one else could. undeterred, Dave stripped the loco, right down to the frames, straightened them, adjusted the stretchers, and rebuilt it straight, remachined the cylinder, the wheels, the motions, the axles, everything. then he had a plan. he wanted a Bulleid version, 917 Ardingly. he set about fabricating a new big Bulleid chimney, and a multi jet blast pipe, and with tweaks and adjustments, converted this dog of a loco and made a loco that ran like a sewing machine. a free steamer, which didn't chew up coal. and proved everyone wrong. Dave then started to build a Merchant Navy. Correcting the Aerial drawings which was a combination of Merchant Navy and light pacific parts. however, by the time this loco had reached a rolling Chassis, it became too much for Dave and he had to retire from the hobby. I know for one, it would have been a fantastic loco had he got to finish it. its with these memories I remember Dave, Boggy, who I miss, but do think of often, remembering the fun #trains #traindriver #steam